


old leaves scatter across the earth

by lilithilien



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Inspired by The Song of Achilles, M/M, Nicky is a Gambling Man, immortal gays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:00:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25671709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilithilien/pseuds/lilithilien
Summary: Nicolò has some surprising gaps in his knowledge. Joe fills him in. Andromache is very, very old.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Quynh | Noriko, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 9
Kudos: 114





	old leaves scatter across the earth

Joe could never doubt Nicky's intelligence, but he is often taken aback by the gaping holes in his knowledge. He endeavours to fill in what Europe's darkest years have erased - a mammoth task, but they have time. Nicolò takes a special liking to _The Iliad_ , so Joe sifts through what he can remember of the Homeric verse, slipping in details about Antar ibn Šaddād whenever his memory blurs. One night, he mentions the name of Hector's long-suffering wife. Nicky wagers a fine falchion, one which he knows Joe covets, that Joe will not ask Andy if she is that same woman.

The prize is almost worth the withering glare Andy gives him. "Do you honestly think there would have been such war had I been in Ilium?"

It's Quynh who tells them about the years leading up to the war, when she and Andy had ventured to Mount Pelion at Kheiron's invitation to instruct two of his students in combat. About Patroclus, steadfast and courageous, and hot-blooded but devoted Achilles. "Inseparable," she says, her warm gaze lingering on Andromache before shifting to Joe and Nicky. "Just like you two."

**Author's Note:**

> Turns out, Homer was well known in the Islamic world even while it seems Catholicism pretty much wiped him out of the Western European memory. I can't help thinking Joe would want to fix that. The title is paraphrased from _The Iliad_ : "Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away."


End file.
